Instagram has added a new safety feature aimed at users below the age of 13. Starting today, the Facebook-owned photo-sharing app will require that new users enter their date of birth at the time of creating an account. Instagram says that it will use the birth date information to provide a tailored experience to the users. As per the Terms of Use policy, a user must be at least 13 years old to have an Instagram account in most countries including India. Anyone under the age of 13 will not be allowed to join the social media platform, Instagram said in an official blog post. "Asking for this information will help prevent underage people from joining Instagram, help us keep young people safer and enable more age-appropriate experiences overall," notes the blog post. Instagram assures that the entered birthday will not be visible to the public, however, the user will be able to see the date of birth in their own private account information. Also Read: Instagram is now testing hiding ‘likes’ count globally, including India For users connecting their Instagram account to Facebook account, the date of birth will be added from the Facebook profile directly. This also means that changing the date of birth on Facebook will change it on Instagram as well. Users who don't have a Facebook account or have not connected their accounts will be able to add or edit their birthday directly on Instagram. Instagram also announced that in the coming months they will use the birthday information of users to create more tailored experiences, such as education around account controls and recommend privacy settings for young users. Instagram is also taking steps to help users control who can send them direct messages. "People who enable this setting will no longer receive messages, group message requests or story replies from anyone they have not chosen to follow," said Instagram.
